NOTICE

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Why not?

Should I vote for a person I despise (Trump) or a person I don't like or trust (Clinton)? The choice is not a true choice. Because I can vote for any single person eligible for the office of president. But by voting for anyone outside of the two major parties I am essentially throwing away my vote. It is true, unless you are willing to cast the vote as a message to the center of culture.

I have, however, voted third party more than I have main party. Why I write this is to say, we have had 20 years of governance that has been a confluence of selfish petty personality politics that smell of masturbation as well as concentration of power in hands where use has been closer to criminal than ethical. So why keep the train on the same track?

I do not believe in the offerings of Bernie Sanders, but at least he offered something different. I do not believe that the promise of standing his ground would lead Ted Cruz to a great presidency. I believe he would end up achieving enormous amounts of protests, and revolt by those standing against him. Donald Trump offers America fear and loathing. Hilary Clinton offers America more lip service to change and status quo world power.

Is the path America is on one that we wish it to be? I do not think so. So one candidate offers us to turn back the clock, to stop the motion of societal change. Another offers to assist in a stable forward motion. But neither seems to me to understand some very simple things. There is a considerable hate of America that is growing across the globe. Some of it is founded upon envy, some is founded upon the belief that the US is a hypocrite. It makes global pronouncements of Human rights against others but has a horrible history of such within its own past. And of course, it is true, America did slaughter many Native peoples. The British, by the way, watched as the people of India starved while subjects of the crown. Some scholars of Indian history suggest that the British oversaw a passive slaughter of people of India to the number of hundreds of millions over time. And other colonial powers were worse, and many former subject people were also irresponsible in their own days of freedom after the colonial power had left. No one is perfect.

But rather than count the costs of events from the past, acknowledge that horrible events happened in the past and move on? Address it and move forward? How can it be done? I don't know. But, we confuse ourselves by thinking our elections don't affect others, and that we have no connection to the global world. I think the world has false beliefs of right and wrong, and I am not about to explain my view why that is, but even if that is so, the US has to stop assuming it is alone in the world.